Former Viacom CCO Carl Folta Joins Abernathy MacGregor

NEW YORK—Corporate and financial PR specialist Abernathy MacGregor has named Carl Folta as senior counselor. Folta most recently served as executive vice president of corporate communications for Viacom, where he worked in various communications roles for more than two decades.

During his tenure at Viacom from 1994 to 2016, Folta served as the company’s chief public relations strategist and spokesperson, responsible for overall communications activities, both internally and externally, as well as the coordination of communications at its global operations, which include a television network portfolio and its film studio, Paramount Pictures.

He oversaw all financial communications, media relations activities for industry issues and public affairs, communications in support of regulatory and legal affairs, and programs in support of Viacom’s overall corporate and digital marketing efforts.

He also was responsible for the company’s philanthropic activities and corporate social responsibility programs. He was the architect of the groundbreaking KNOW HIV/Aids campaign, an award-winning public education partnership with the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the company’s partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Get Schooled, an independent non-profit organization dedicated to renewing the promise of education in America.

Folta joined Viacom in April 1994 from Paramount Communications. He began his career at Ruder & Finn in 1979.